News & Information for Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts

Main menu

Search form

You are here

Tempe Man Revives Heritage Grains and Milling in Tempe - A wonderful story

July 23, 2012 - 11:32am

dabrownman

Tempe Man Revives Heritage Grains and Milling in Tempe - A wonderful story

In yesterdays Arizona Republic there was a great story about a Tempe man who has revived growing heritage AZ grain, milling them and selling the the flour to the best Pizza maker in the country, Chris Bianco owner and chef at Bianco's and other local chefs and bread makers whiloe reviving the Haden Flour Mill name that gave Tempe's main drag its name - Mill Avenue. Who knew?

What a great story and labor of love Mr Zimmerman has achieved!!! Here is the link. I'm going to get the Indian Sonoran White flour or seed. Oddly some of our yearly 300,000 tons od Desert Durum is sold to Italian pasta makers because it is prized for its gluten strength and yellow color.

Interesting story. I've lived in Tempe most of my life within a few miles of the former Hayden Flour Mill and went to school with some of the Haydens. Hope to find some bags of the new Hayden flour in the store one of these days.

paper E4 right next to this story is anither story 'Most wheat from state goes Caio! about how 300,000 tons of Desert Durmum is grown in AZ and most of it is exported to Italy where it highly prized for pasta making and or goes to the American Italian Pasta Company in Tolleeson for their pasta. At Pane Bianco, Hayden Flour Mills also seels berries with Kamut, Emmer and Faro being among them it seems. Right now I think it is only sold at Pane Bianco.

to like Sonoran Wheat and pasta makers like the Desert Durum. Maybe we have a wheat hot spot in AZ like the Earth's power point located in Sedona :-) Now, I have to look up Guinda and see where it is !

since Chris Bianco's brother, who bakes at Pane for Chris, was the only one talked about in the piece that I remember. But Roberts, who supplied Chris with pizza flour from his mill in the Carolinas, helped put Zimmerman into the flour milling business in AZ by giving him 2 tons of seeds for a farmer to plant so Zimmerman could start up his mill potentially selling flour to Chris against Roberts. Roberts expects to be paid back for the seeds so it really isn't a donation I suppose but Zimmerman couldn't get started without them.

Mr. Roberts understands that to be successful in all things you have to have the many good character attributes required for success. The hardest one to have and hold dear is generosity and Mr Roberts has that in spades by putting a competitor into business knowing Zimmerman could and probably would take away some of his business with one of the most high profile customes Roberts had - Chris Bianco. Mr Roberts also avoids one of the 3 character attributes that always leads to failure. He has no fear. You have to love Mr Roberts.

Mr Zimmerman started with nothing and because of the generosity and help of many others who didnlt have to do so, he was able to revive a venerable old milling name, start a new milling business, give business to a mill stone maker in Austria (in your neck of the woods), give work to a wheat farmer in AZ and help revive old wheat strains like White Sonoran - all after losing his tech job 2 years before. That is the story that made my day. Fair, decent and honest competition is a good thing.

Can't think that Zimmerman is too much competition for Roberts though when he sells small quantities of flour; 1.5 # for $5. That is the most expensive flour I have ever heard of and like the article says - many Americans want flour cheap, first and foremost.

other Tempe baking story I had posted the same day. Now your funny question makes complete sense!

I would say the point or moral of the story is: If you upgrade your bakery then lose your baker who goes into competition with you, it is best to throw yourself off a cliff and fail to kill yourself than it is to shoot yourself in the head in the basement and succeed later :-)

I have and believe me.. I could NOT imagine doing so without air conditioning!

Interesting to note, however, that back in those days, suicide was the second biggest cause of death in the US.. with disease/infections being first. Life wasn't easy back then. Most men used jumping or shooting and most women used poison.

I live just outside of Tempe and I thought the story was interesting and a wonderful glimpse into some agricultural history of the the area. Thank you for sharing.. I look forward to hearing more about the old Mill and I will NEVER walk down Mill Ave again without thinking of this article.

Follow The Fresh Loaf on:

All original site content copyright 2018 The Fresh Loaf unless stated otherwise. Content posted by community members is their own. The Fresh Loaf is not responsible for community member content. If you see anything inappropriate on the site or have any questions, contact me at floydm at thefreshloaf dot com. This site is powered by Drupal and Mollom.